Indoor Softball

Since I am from Iowa, we can't play softball year round. We are known for pretty nasty winters (which they are...), and it lasts from about November to a little bit into March. Someone was pretty inventive though, and thought of the brilliant idea of playing indoors! It is completely weird the first time you do it, but it's actually kind of fun! It's exactly like outdoor softball, but there's walls and ceilings. It depends on the tournament you are going to, but most indoor tournaments, you are aloud to slide on the turf. Also, some tournaments count it as a foul ball if the ball hits the ceiling.
One thing that is tough to get acquired to is the bouncy floor. On a softball field, unless the dirt is packed down real tight, the ball doesn't bounce that high. In an indoor place, you could bounce a softball off of the ground like a bouncy ball. It is spectacular if you are a slap hitter (which I am yay), but it is absolutely terrible if you are fielding it. Also, sometimes if you hit a line drive into the outfield, it can bounce over the makeshift fences. That turns it into an automatic double. This can be a bummer if you are fast and it could have possibly been a triple, but it is a life saver to the slower people who would have otherwise only gotten only a single.
Another thing to get used to is the ceilings. If you don't pay attention and the ball is hit up into the air, it could actually be potentially dangerous. When the ball hits the ceiling, it kind of just ricochets all different directions, and rather fast too. It can be a good thing too, if the ceiling is low enough, it can stop homeruns and save the pitchers butt! One of my teammates would have definitely gotten a homerun last weekend when we played had the ceiling not been there!
My favorite part about indoor is sliding on the turf. For me, I steal almost every time I get on base, and I use a slide by instead of a regular pop up slide. It's the most fun thing to do because when you do a slide by, you purposely try to slide past the base, but at the last second, you grab on to the base and flip over on to your stomach. Fun in any kind of situation, indoor or outdoor. But when you are indoor, you just fly all over the place. The first time I did it I flung by the base so fast that I took the base with me! Good thing or I would have been out!
A lot of people don't enjoy playing indoor, but it's a time to get all the kinks out and get ready for the softball season. Try some new things, and just try to have fun with it!
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Image: http://archive.inside.iastate.edu/2011/0217/0217.php